Ju-on: The Curse 2
Ju-on: The Curse 2 (呪怨2 Ju-on 2) is the second installment in the Ju-on film series. The film had a limited theatrical release in Japan on March 25, 2000 and was later released onto video on April 14, 2000. Like the first film, Ju-on 2 is split into several vignettes, the first two being much of a recap of the previous film. The rest introduces new information on those events, and new characters, as well as briefly introducing events which would play into the two following theatrical films. On his request, the sensitive sister of a real estate agent visits a vacant house he intends to put on sale, unaware of its resident ghosts and their grudge curse gathered there in the past. The Curse 2 is followed by the first theatrical film of the series, Ju-on: The Grudge. Cast *Yūko Daike as Kyoko Suzuki *Makoto Ashikawa as Tatsuya Suzuki *Kahori Fujii as Yoshimi Kitada *Yūrei Yanagi as Shunsuke Kobayashi *Ryota Koyama as Toshio Saeki *Takako Fuji as Kayako Saeki *Takashi Matsuyama as Takeo Saeki *Hua Rong Weng as Hiroshi Kitada *Tomohiro Kaku as Nobuyuki Suzuki *Taizo Mizumura as Taiji Suzuki *Harumi Matsukaze as Fumi Suzuki *Yue as Manami Kobayashi *Denden as Yoshikawa *Kiriko Shimizu as Yoshikawa's wife *Taro Suwa as Kamio *Reita Serizawa as Iizuka *Kenta Ishikawa as Satô *Mayuko Saitô as Tatsuya's employee Plot Shunsuke Kobayashi, a teacher, visits the Saeki house and finds the young Toshio Saeki alone at home. However, he quickly finds the corpse of Kayako Saeki hidden in the attic and receives a phone call from her husband Takeo who reveals he has murdered Kobayashi's pregnant wife Manami and butchered her unborn child, due to believing Kayako was being unfaithful upon discovering she has an obsessive crush on Kobayashi. Kayako's body rises as an onryō and kills Kobayashi, before tracking down and killing the rampaging Takeo. Sometime later, a woman named Kyoko helps her brother Tatsuya, a real estate agent, to examine the Saeki house and put it on the market. However, Kyoko is disturbed by the house and leaves, visiting her nephew Nobuyuki in the apartment once owned by Kobayashi. They witness Takeo murdering Manami and are affected by the Saeki curse. Tatsuya moves them to his parents' house in the countryside, where Kyoko is seemingly possessed and rocks back and forth, whilst Nobuyuki has become a mute. Tatsuya's father believes the Saeki house's curse is responsible, Tatsuya heads off to investigate. The current residents of the Saeki house, Yoshimi and Hiroshi Kitada, become affected by the curse. Yoshimi murders her husband by walloping him with a frying pan, and then kills Tatsuya when he visits. All of Tatsuya's family save Nobuyuki die from the curse. Around a month later, Nobuyuki is still a mute and is observed by police officers Kamio and Iizuka. Both visit another officer, Yoshikawa, who has been driven mad by his attempted investigation of the deaths surrounding the Saeki house, but he and his wife are killed by Kayako. Kamio is attacked by Kayako at work, shocking Iizuka and another officer who go to check his office. Kamio is killed seconds later by Kayako. In the final vignette, Nobuyuki is shown at school. He spots Kayako outside the window, and she suddenly opens and crawls in through it. Nobuyuki flees whilst pursued by the surprisingly agile Kayako despite having her ankle broken when she died forcing her to crawl. A second Kayako appears, while he makes an attempt to escape through the stairs. Both ghosts corner Nobuyuki in a science lab and kill him - the final shots of the film showing there is an army of Kayako replicas outside, scratching the windows, and still making their ominous death rattle, reflecting on the curse's never-ending, spreading affects. Continuity *It is revealed in Ju-on: Video Side that the real estate agent that sold the house to the Murakami family was also named Tatsuya (Mizuho's deceased father). *Kyoko collects news reports about the Kobayashi and the Murakami family disappearances, which according to her happened "one or two years" prior to the events of this installment. Investigators Iizuka and Kamio recount this events one month after the Suzuki family is taken by the grudge. *Kanna and her mother Noriko Murakami are reported dead, and Tsuyoshi is missing. Kamio also mentions their hospitalized father, who also vanished. *The last vignette ("Saori") is deepened in the following film, Ju-on: The Grudge and its sequel. Toyama has a vision of this scene at the Saeki household. Notes and trivia *Nearly 30 out of 76 minutes of the film retell events from the previous installment. *The film introduces the curse spreading through its victims onto others that have never stepped inside the house or Tatsuya's apartment (the Suzuki family in this case). *Even though he is pursued by Kayako's ghost only, Nobuyuki is affected by Manami's grudge, the only character in the Ju-on films to be so (Tatsuya and Kyoko were shown to be cursed only after they visited the Saeki house). *The last film to reference Manami's murder, her grudge or her cursed apartment. *Yoshimi is the first possessed character seen in the Ju-on films. Kyoko is the second one, who is possessed in a way that references both Kayako and Manami's motherhood nature, and eerily foreshadows Kyoko Harase's role of mother in Ju-on: The Grudge 2. *The scene in which Yoshimi murders Hiroshi is referenced in The Grudge 2, when a possessed Trish murders Bill similarly. *Kayako's ghost is seemingly fond of Nobuyuki, perhaps identifying the boy with her own son Toshio. *Nobuyuki's fate is loosely referenced in Jake's plot in The Grudge 2. Both are cursed minors and the last survivors of a family that died mysteriously. Kayako's ghost, however, seemingly demonstrates affection for Nobuyuki, while it brutally kills Jake. *Manami's ghost never manifests itself. When the possessed Kyoko lullabies the baby doll, she eventually "becomes" Kayako instead of Manami. Gallery Ju-on-2-pos.jpg|German DVD edition featuring The Curse and The Curse 2. Ju on 2.jpg|US DVD edition. Category:Ju-on films